Dec. 28, 2012 12:34 p.m. | Winter can feel pretty long in Wisconsin, especially once all the holiday hoopla is over.

In that spirit, MyCommunityNOW invites you to check out our special WhatNOW? section for some tips on how to stay busy this winter. You'll find a list of stories on interesting winter activities, a map of some great places to spend time this winter and more.

We also invite you to share your own ideas on what you like to do during the winter. Your comments may appear in a future issue of NOW newspapers.

Dec. 17, 2012 5:56 p.m. | Even though the Muskego and New Berlin city halls will be closed for the holidays, people can still pay their property taxes.

The Muskego City Hall will be closed Dec. 24, Dec. 25, Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, but people can put their tax bills into drop boxes outside City Hall, S8200 Racine Ave., and the Muskego Library, W16663 Janesville Road.

All tax bills placed in the drop boxes through Jan. 1 will have receipt dates of Dec. 31.

Muskego residents can also pay their taxes through December at U.S. Bank, North Shore Bank, Waukesha State Bank, Harris Bank and Citizens Bank of Mukwonago. Taxpayers also can pay from checking or savings accounts for free or with a credit card for a fee.

In New Berlin, City Hall, 3805 S. Casper Drive, will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays for people to pay their taxes, although it will be closed Dec. 24 and 25. City Hall will be open from 8 a.m. to noon Dec. 31 before closing until Jan. 2.

Dec. 17, 2012 1:38 p.m. | The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board has approved the state's acquisiton of 94 acres of land that Muskego deems to be a high priority conservation area.

The parcel, which includes a bald eagle nesting area, currently owned by Rachel Lang would be added to the state's Big Muskego Lake State Wildlife Area. Wisconsin's acquisition of of that Lang parcel would create the largest contiguous area of conservancy, at 350 acres, in Muskego, said Tom Zagar, conservation coordinator/city forester.

The closing on the land purchase is expected before year's end. The Big Muskego Lake/Bass Bay Protection & Rehabilitation District will contribute $50,000 toward the acquisition.

Dec. 15, 2012 10:46 a.m. | For three quarters, the New Berlin West boys basketball team nipped at the heels of conference-leading New Berlin Eisenhower, but the Vikings never got close enough to take a real bite.

Up 38-31 after a raucous first half, Eisenhower’s defense smothered the Vikings half-court offense after the break en route to a 62-46 victory, Friday night at West High School.

“We gave up more in the first quarter than we did in the second half,” Eisenhower coach Dave Scheidegger said. “We focused on defense at halftime and obviously the kids responded immensely.”

A three-point play by junior Reed Timmer put Eisenhower up 17-14 late in the first quarter, and the Lions refused to relinquish the lead again. West closed to within 45-39 late in the third quarter on a basket by senior forward Darrin Sowinski, but the Lions pulled away down the stretch.

“[West] was fired up and was fighting,” Scheidegger said. “Our kids were resilient, withstood everything, and played a great game.”

Despite trailing for most of the game, the Vikings kept things interesting up until the final minute before Eisenhower tacked on a pair of three-point plays to ice the win.

“We got off to a good start in some ways, but we needed to spend more time on offense,” said West coach Jeff Lewiston. “We had too many turnovers and they capitalized, especially in transition.”

An explosive start by both teams set the stage for a potential shootout, with West pounding the ball inside to Sowinski and fellow big Austin Fritz and the Lions sinking nearly every jump shot they attempted.

The Vikings succeeded in holding Timmer, who came in averaging 29 points per game, to 11 points in the first half, but they paid a price for such heavy attention, often leaving other shooters wide open.

“They had some kids step up,” praised Lewiston. “The idea was to make somebody else step up besides (Timmer and second-leading scorer Sandro Pesqueira), and they did.”

As the Vikings wore down in the second half, so did their offensive efficiency. Meanwhile, Timmer’s teammates continued to take advantage of their open looks, as Corbin Messman, Mitch Arman and Bennett Kohlhardt each hit three-pointers and finished with 14, 10 and seven points, respectively.

“We just talked about it, ‘Hey guys, you’re shooters, step up and let’s see what you got,’ Scheidegger said. “Corbin answered the bell as they all did all night.”

As a team, the Lions shot 7-for-14 from downtown. Afterward, Timmer, who led all players with 22 points and seven rebounds, acknowledged the total team effort on offense.

“(My teammates) know that they have the ability, and they stepped up and knocked shots down,” he said, “and that’s how we ended up winning the game.”

Sowinski led West with 15 points and senior guard Tyler Thompson added 10.
Next up for the Vikings (2-6) are road trips to Whitnall and Greendale.

“I thought we played hard and played with intensity in front of a nice crowd,” Lewiston said. “Certainly there are no moral victories, but at the same time I have to look at what we’ve improved on and the bottom line is I’ve seen growth in this team from the first game, which is important. We took a step forward.”

Eisenhower improved to 5-1 in the Woodland-West and 6-2 overall. The Lions host Greenfield on Tuesday and travel to Brown Deer on Friday.

Weiland was the only player from either team in double figures with 18, as she helped Eisenhower to a 30-12 lead at halftime by scoring as many points as the crosstown Vikings.

She scored six points in the first quarter to help the Lions get off to a fast start and then added six more in second and six more in the third to put on a consistent performance for most of the night.

The Lions’ defense was their offense for most of the night as they stole the ball and used a transition offense, as Weiland had eight points herself on fast break layups.

“We were ready to play and we knew we would bring it because they are our biggest rivals,” Weiland said. “We knew we had to push it and get out of the gate. We had not been starting the best these last couple games, so we knew we had to bring it to them.”

Both coaches agreed that the fast start was the key to the game.

“We were a little sketchy at practice this week,” Ike coach Gary Schmidt said. “But these kids are known to be gamers. We had some fast breaks and hit some key shots. We tried to put the pressure on them so they had to come back rather than us.”

As for Weiland’s play.

“That’s why Winona State recruited her,” Schmidt said. “They said she is always all over the court. She’s a big girl, but people don’t realize that she is as fast as anyone out there. That’s what we love about her, she’s all over the court.”

West coach Cory Scheel talked about that fast start and how his team struggled all night.

“They were more physical, they were more tough and after that first quarter we were shellshocked,” he said. “We weren’t in sync offensively tonight and that hurt us a lot. We didn’t follow our game plan on either end of the floor.

“I don’t care how many times we play Eisenhower, we don’t get into our offense well. They give extreme help defense, which I know they would do and we passed right into them.”

With 3 minutes, 10 seconds left in the third quarter, West’s Claire Radtke hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 14 at 34-20. But the Ike rolled off eight points in a row to put the game away.

Jessa Hahn scored a layup, Erin Ganzke hit two free throws and Weiland closed it out with a basket and two free throws for a 42-20 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Dec. 12, 2012 7:00 a.m. | Walmart is proposing a combined supermarket and discount store for 16 acres in New Berlin, near the southeast corner of S. Moorland Road and W. Greenfield Ave.

The 150,000-square-foot store would be built at 15205-15375 W. Greenfield Ave., a mostly vacant site that now includes the Charcoal Grill restaurant, according to documents filed with the city's Department of Community Development. That building would be razed, according to the project's site plan.

The new store, if it wins city zoning approval, would replace a Walmart at 15333 W. National Ave., New Berlin, in Moorland Square Shopping Center. The new store would be larger, and would create an additional 50 to 100 jobs, according to Walmart's zoning change application.

Walmart also would work with the owner of the space it now leases "to assist in marketing and re-tenanting any vacated store building," the application said.

Walmart wants to operate the new store 24 hours a day. The proposed development site includes three-quarters of an acre of wetlands that would be preserved and buffered, the application said.

Dec. 10, 2012 2:12 p.m. | Muskego police are looking for a suspect in an attempted strong-arm robbery in the parking lot of Sauced Restaurant, W16355 Woods Road, that happened at about 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

A woman reported to police that a man knocked her down and attempted to steal her vehicle. The suspect could not find her vehicle keys in her purse and ran off. She described him as about 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 160 pounds and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Officers searched the area using the Waukesha County canine unit, but the suspect was not located.

Dec. 05, 2012 3:24 p.m. | The New Berlin Ethics Board decided Tuesday that there is probable cause for an ethics hearing to be held on an ethics complaint against New Berlin Alderwoman Laura Karvala alleging that she stands to gain financially by Wilbur Drive being closed or partially closed to traffic.

Karvala lives on Wilbur and the complaint signed by numerous residents alleges that her property values would go up as a result of the closure.